Firstly and foremost, Hi and Welcome emm
What imutual is all about is a pretty simple idea: “You get some real hard cash paid back to you when you buy from a vast number of online shops (merchants).”
Most of the major retailers / shops are listed at imutual, and a good chunk of smaller / independents. PLUS utility companies, insurance, car hire comparisons, SIM contracts, SIM cards etc. If the shop (merchant) is listed at imutual, then simply login to your account, search for the shop (merchant) and click through via the imutual link. You will see on the imutual shop (merchant) page what rewards are available for each type of purchase, eg £160 broadband & line rental, £60 broadband only. Once at the shop (merchant) website just carry on and browse and buy as you normally would.
After that, everything is exactly the same. The prices are the same, the service is the same, the shop is the same, you still get the normal Nectar, Loyalty Points, Avios, Credit Card Points, Credit Card Cashback etc. The only difference is that the shop pays imutual a little bit of money for 'sending' you as a customer as in “commission” to imutual. Then imutual passes the “commission” money on to the imutual member whose account the transaction went through.
Most adverts you see online use the same method as imutual except instead of giving us the “commission” cashback they keep it for themselves!!!
With respect to time, it normally takes between several weeks to a few months for the money to be paid. The statement (top of page in centre next to your name) lists all of your transactions with full details.
http://www.imutual.co.uk/statement
The cashback is generally between several pounds to a few hundred pounds depending upon what the original transaction was. Slow and steady the money does build up to thousands of pounds (yes I have cashed out thousands of pounds). You can withdraw it to your bank account, PayPal etc as soon as it turns to 'Awarded' status FREE-of-charge.
The unique characteristic about imutual is "FREE imutual Shares". When you earn cashback, you also receive (free, gratis and for nothing) shares in the imutual PLC company. Right now, they aren't worth the paper they're written on – they're just a number on the screen. But the aim is that if the site ever becomes really big and successful, they will convert into actual genuine real shares, worth actual genuine real money – hard GBP. There's no downside to having the shares (you won't have to invest any money!). The idea is that we all have an interest in the site doing well because we sort of own a bit of it. You can safely ignore the whole thing if you want. (Note – some of the imutual members have formed an entirely separate Share Dealing Club – the imutual Cashback Investment Club – see my comments further down for more info).
Additionally, there are the daily clicks (you do NOT need to buy anything) - you simply click through via imutual to the merchant and do what it says in the description, eg make a flight search and the money tracks. I'm not sure how much the daily clicks add up to per day currently as I have bigger fish to fry. It is however easy money for those who choose to do them day-in day-out.
http://www.imutual.co.uk/easy-cashback
Finally, and by no means the least is the imutual Cashback Investment Club (CIC) where the cashback you earned can if you so wish (this is TOTALLY optional) be transferred into a Club that trades in shares. I personally have invested ALL of my cashback since the inception of the CIC into the CIC – that doesn't mean you have to do the same – but it is an option for you to think about. Further reading:
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=58172
If you have any questions, or just fancy a natter, pop into the forums. We're friendly, have wildly conflicting views, and will offer what random advice we can. There's a proper query function too, but you'll often get a quicker response on the forum. There's also a Help section (top right).
http://www.imutual.co.uk/help
Of use to you will be the reports menu that lists different statistics, both about your own account and imutual in general.
http://www.imutual.co.uk/reports
I wish you every success at imutual and hope you make money, learn new things and meet some extraordinary, genuine and amazing people.
Happy Cashbacking
Kind Regards
AAAlphaThunder (pronounced "Triple-A Alpha Thunder")
